1-car Groups Team Up To Try To Keep Pace

Inside Auto Racing

October 24, 1996|By Mike Dame of The Sentinel Staff

For at least a few days, veteran Ricky Rudd has stolen the spotlight from the three-way battle for NASCAR's Winston Cup drivers' championship.

Rudd's victory Sunday at Rockingham, N.C., extended his string of seasons with at least one victory to 14, second among active drivers to Dale Earnhardt's 15. Richard Petty holds the record of 18 consecutive years.

Since buying his own team two seasons ago, Rudd said he has learned how difficult it is to win as a driver-owner.

''Those guys with two or three cars share information and tests, and that surely gives them an edge,'' said Rudd, 40, a driver in the powerful Hendrick Motorsports stable before forming his own team in 1994. ''NASCAR may make some changes soon that will even up things a bit, but in the meantime, some of us are taking a first step toward helping ourselves.

''Some of the one-car teams, including mine, are pooling our resources. We're going to do some testing together and share the information. This is just one project now, but if it goes well and we like the results we see from it, it could be expanded to a lot more.''

Sunday's Dura-Lube 500 at Phoenix International Raceway - the second-to-last race of the Winston Cup season - could set the stage for a wild season finale at Atlanta on Nov. 10. Terry Labonte leads Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon by 32 points in the season standings, but Dale Jarrett is within striking distance, 76 points back. The scenarios:

If Gordon finishes in the top 43 at Phoenix, Labonte cannot clinch the Winston Cup drivers' championship this weekend.

If Labonte leads laps in the final two races, he can clinch the title by placing third at Phoenix and Atlanta.

If Gordon wins the last two races and leads the most laps to collect the maximum 185 points in each race, Labonte still can win the title by finishing second at Phoenix and Atlanta whether he leads laps or not.

Two sixth-place finishes by Labonte would eliminate Jarrett.

Gordon, who had eight consecutive top-five finishes before slipping out of the top 10 the past two races at Charlotte and Rockingham, N.C., could benefit this weekend from extra preparation at Phoenix. Two weeks ago, Gordon participated in a two-day Goodyear tire test, running about 400 laps on the 1-mile oval.

''It was a tire test, but for the most part, I felt it was real good for me to get a lot of laps there,'' said Gordon, 25. '' . . . It was good for me to make those laps, especially the 50-lap runs because every lap I'm adjusting my line, doing different things on the racetrack to find out what's going to make it go faster. Now I've just got to remember those things when we go back to race.''

Bruton Smith's motorsports empire could expand to the Midwest. As construction continues at $110 million Texas International Raceway near Fort Worth, Smith has forged a joint management and development agreement between his North Carolina-based Speedway Motorsports Inc. and Quad-Cities International Raceway Park west of Joslin, Ill.

The deal calls for Speedway Motorsports to serve as a consultant on construction and operation of the proposed $42 million Quad-Cities Raceway Park, to be anchored by a 1.5-mile D-shaped oval. The facility also will include a 2-mile road course and two short tracks.

The track initially will seat 70,000, with potential expansion to 150,000. The alliance grants Smith's company the right to buy ownership of 40 percent of the new track. Smith said his ultimate goal is to bring a NASCAR Winston Cup race to the track.

QUICK SHIFTS: Darlington Raceway will go ahead with its long-discussed change of moving the start-finish line to the backstretch of NASCAR's oldest superspeedway. The construction of a new grandstand, control tower, victory lane and infield buildings will be completed by the Southern 500 next Labor Day weekend. . . . Ron Hornaday Jr., who leads Mike Skinner by 86 points in the race for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series drivers' championship, can clinch the title with a victory Saturday at Phoenix with a top-five finish coupled with a poor finish by Skinner. That isn't likely; Skinner has two victories and a second-place finish at the track.